Red River Valley on the jaw harp: tabs
Red River Valley is a easy song on the jaw harp: 38 notes over 9 bars in 4/4 at 80 BPM, about 26 seconds. It uses 8 different keys. It is moved 7 semitones up to fit the keys.
Red River Valley jaw harp tab in numbers
| r r r 68 | 10 1010 10 910 | | 98 r r 68 | 10 810 12 1110 | | 9 - - 1211 | 10 109 8 910 | | 1211 r r 77 | 6 158 9 109 | | 8 - - |
What to watch for
- The most played key is 10, used for 12 of the 38 notes. The tune goes from 6 up to 15.
- The widest jump is from 6 to 15 (16 semitones): slow down there the first times.
- A note is played again straight after itself 5 times: keep the beat steady rather than rushing the repeats.
How to read this tab
A vertical bar is a bar line. A dash keeps the last note ringing, an r is a silent beat, and notes in brackets are played together. It shows the melody part. The jaw harp page explains the notes in more detail.